Summer Brave
by The DayDreaming
Summary: -game novelization- They had drunk time in listless summer days; but now that the world unfolds before them, it is a bitter drop that poisons the soul. "Why does it always feel like I'm chasing someone beyond my reach?" / Isshushipping, NxTouya
1. There's a Black Sheep in Every Flock

**Title**: Summer Brave

**Author**: The DayDreaming

**Warnings**: This is a game novelization, and even beyond that, it's an interpretation of my own! Characterization and content are subject to my whim, and some things may come off as different. Please don't be startled.

**Summary**: -_game novelization_- They had drunk time in listless summer days; but now that the world unfolds before them, it is a bitter drop that poisons the soul. "Why does it always feel like I'm chasing someone beyond my reach?" / Isshushipping, NxTouya

.

.

arc _one_: **Summer**

**Chapter 1:** there's a black sheep in every flock

.oXo.

.

_I remember that summer._

_It was like every other, lost in the daze of heat and hourless time passing._

_I can just imagine it; the taste of hot air and the sweat coating my neck; the steamy shimmer of mirages in the distance, barely brushed by my tanning fingers._

_It was dizzying in its nostalgia and heartless in its intent. Those summers we had spent together before meant nothing. Words we had written, of history and fights and the shade beneath trees, washed away each year from the pages of our youth._

_We'd start again, and again, and again and never think more of it as we inhaled the melting sky and lost our minds to frivolity. We took risks and jumped into the ocean and laughed at nothing, and each was a promise to forgive any wrongs because we knew that another summer would come around again; faithfully, unerringly._

_We were summer brave._

_I wanted to believe it would last forever, those charming days hot and sticky on my tongue. But we had grown old and I had not realized that we had come apart at our tight-knit seams, bursting forth to separate and find our ways in the world._

_When we parted, on that fateful afternoon, I did not know my way, and watched as the world folded around me, your backs fading into the dust. _

_Where was that summer brave soul that had sought the wind? I could not find it._

.

.

.

Nuvema, like any other small town on the outskirts of Unova, is old, dingy, and forgotten. If it weren't for the fact that a direct road connects it to Accumula, a much more prosperous township, it would likely be passed by completely.

Its occupants reflect Nuvema's tendency towards the mundane, being steadfastly unchanging and as immovable in their ways and beliefs as the old evergreens surrounding their spit of land.

Nothing extraordinary ever happens here. No one extraordinary ever comes from here. There are fishermen with their leaky boats and businessmen with their dusty cars and Professor Juniper's lab, tucked into a corner and almost as unobtrusive as the rest of the town.

Touya remembers growing up and believing that there was no place beyond the endless oaks and pines, past the hills of flowers, or across the blue abyss of the ocean. As far as he could ever tell, there was only that one old road, unpaved and filled with the soft sand he'd throw in his sister's hair whenever she was being particularly bratty to him.

He knows better now; has read maps and watched the news and hitched a ride with Bianca's father to Accumula, where the usually stingy man had bought ice cream for everyone to celebrate Bianca's birthday.

But really, he had never cared to know. Life beyond Nuvema was unfathomable to him; his roots had burrowed deep into the ground and fed from the safety and surety of the thought, 'I will die here.' Touko had other plans, but she is Touko and Touya has always known that she is destined for greater things. She is her mother's daughter, after all; of the same breed as the city-slicker woman turned Pokemon trainer, whom had fallen in love with a fisherman that could offer her none of the excitement of a life abroad, but the insurance that she was loved.

He can remember the evenings spent against his father's knee, listening to his voice as he told him the story of a woman who had lost her way and fallen into the ocean. A boy had run to save her, but found that her Samurott had already propelled her back to the docks, where she was busy wringing out her hair. At that part, his father would wax poetic about the beautiful goddess that had emerged from the sea, her unearthly radiance making his heart stop—and then his mother would come around and smack her husband on the head, but smile and touch her face when she turned away.

Touko had told him once that she wanted to be just like mom, setting out to see the world on her own. He had asked her why, back then. Her eyes turned owlish and her mouth formed a tiny 'o' before she laughed at him, like he had missed out on some big joke, or, even worse, he _was_ the joke. She always treated him like that.

"Just because it's what people do," she told him. He had wanted to ask more, or maybe hit her for laughing at him, but as quickly as she had appeared she was off again, running to Bianca and Cheren. He could see her laughing and telling them the entire ordeal. Touya spent the rest of the day sulking on his father's boat.

He had asked his mother once, but she had only smiled at him and replied, "It's been such a long time, Touya. I can hardly remember the reason why. All I know is the result."

Touya is older now, and doesn't ask so many questions. Perhaps he thinks them, but he bottles them away and accepts that he is not the one people talk to, let alone answer inane questions for. Bianca and Cheren are tolerable enough, though Cheren has a way of making him feel incredibly stupid, and Bianca always goes off-topic. Touko just shakes her head and sighs.

"Baby brothers," she moans to Bianca, who nods her head like she understands, even if her little brother is only four.

He bears his sister's discontent and walks away, because he knows it annoys her (he's grown beyond the urge of shoving her to the ground or putting rocks in her bed).

Life in Nuvema is boring and tedious, and the days shift like clockwork, always the same and always unchanging. Time passes by unnoticed, but shifts forward one tick at a time nevertheless. The days he had spent lounging on the docks or climbing trees had fallen into reading books to pass his Trainer exams and arguing with Touko about what starter pokemon is better.

They both agree on Tepig, though Touya has the distinct impression that if he wanted the Tepig that was sure to be offered to them, he would not get it; Touko always gets what she wants.

It isn't that Touya especially wants a pokemon, but just as his friends had slipped into the idea that they would all set off from their hometown together, so he followed behind them. It is always Cheren, Bianca, Touko and Touya. There is never one without the others, and frankly, the thought of being left behind frightens him more than anything.

They won't come back, he thinks silently to himself sometimes, staring quietly at the old, dusty road leading to Accumula Town. They don't care for the trees they carved their names into, or the creak of the boards at the docks; these are things that are givens in their lives, easily left behind in the wake of adventure. He dreams, and every now and then there are the startling images of walking down that road, watching as his friends run into the distance. He turns around and Nuvema is no longer there, nothing but a long path that falls into the ocean. When he turns back to look for the others, they, too, are gone; he is alone, as always.

.

.

.

Touya turns fourteen on the summer solstice. But there are no cakes or streamers specifically for him, or any hugs that especially remind him that this is _his birthday it's so wonderful you're turning fourteen._ Instead, Touko buzzes around the house in fervor, looking for lost socks or the flashlight she keeps misplacing, while Touya stuffs his head under his pillow to try and sleep off his late night of packing.

Cheren knocking is the only thing that really wakes him. It's the same tap-tap-_tap_ that has plagued his door since they were children, and Touya knows he has ten seconds before Cheren invites himself in and starts chiding him for sleeping his morning away.

Touya makes the difficult choice between sleeping and getting up.

Ten seconds later, Cheren opens his bedroom door and huffs at the lump beneath the blankets. "You could at least try to make an effort. Are you even dressed?"

The almost incomprehensible 'no' that slithers past the sheets has Cheren across the room and digging through Touya's dresser with the familiarity of one who has spent many mornings yelling at the other, whom has slept in and is once again late for school.

There had, at one point, been the belief that Cheren would one day ascend into the position of Touya's permanent housewife. The way he pestered Touya to eat all of his lunch (even the icky parts that no seven year old would ever want to willingly eat), wiped his mouth after meals, provided tissues when he sneezed, and brazenly dressed him every other day was the comedic oddity between the two that had sealed them forever as friends.

Touya is under the belief that Cheren is constantly competing with his mother, and the frightening way they glance at each other after they have provided a service for him has in no way diminished that belief. After all, Cheren had once remarked to him how, with the right application of force and pressure, a carrot could be used as a deadly weapon.

Cheren rips the old blue comforter from him and dumps all of his rummaged clothes atop Touya's head. When it's obvious that even this won't awaken Touya, Cheren starts to strip off the other's shirt, yanking roughly to pull the sleeves past folded arms.

"Cheren…," Touya sighs in resignation. Cheren doesn't do boundaries. "I'm up…stop. Please?" The other merely finishes pulling Touya's pajama bottoms down and steps away.

"If you'd just get up on time like everyone else, Touya," the same words he always says. They fall between each other like tumblers sliding into place.

Touya sighs again and begins the painfully slow process of pulling himself from his ruffled bed, sliding his legs over the edge, only to have Cheren attack them with a pair of grey trousers. He doesn't comment, and instead grabs the black shirt discarded to the side.

"Are you…going to miss…doing this?" he asks when they finish, brushing his wild hair into something semi-manageable.

"I don't know what there would be to miss in having to dress you like a toddler just to have some form of punctuality on your attendance record," Cheren had begun sorting his travel bag, sifting through the tightly folded extra shirts and the blue jacket hastily shoved on top of everything else. "Where are the berries I gave you?"

"Touko."

Because Touko likes taking his stuff with a casual, "Are you using this? No? Now it's mine!" Touya suspects that she does this when he's sleeping, and is very much too unconscious to answer back.

"I see. Well, I've given you three oran berries now. Be grateful."

"Thanks, dear."

"Professor Juniper has already been here, by the way," Cheren remarks casually, clipping Touya's bag's flap closed. "She dropped off the pokeballs. I suspect if we don't hurry, Touko will have gotten into them by now."

"Alright…hold on," Touya mumbles, following behind the other's retreating back. He notices Cheren walking into Touko's room, but he makes a detour to the bathroom. He can faintly hear what sounds like shouting as he washes his face. It gives him a sinking feeling in his gut, and he allows himself to shudder into the hand towel that covers his face.

Everything feels incredibly unfair. He knows what's happened. He doesn't need to open his sister's door to see that she's already made her choice; that they all have. There's a selfish part of him that thinks he deserves to have his pick first. It's his birthday, and it's only been his entire life that he's let Touko have everything. The blanket when there was only one, or his ice cream when hers fell on the ground; his homework when she didn't finish hers; the ring his father wore.

There are a lot of things she claims she can do because she's older, or because she's a girl, or because Touya is an idiot. Maybe he's bitter, but he doesn't like to dwell on it.

He pushes open Touko's door, only to step aside as two blurs tumble through the entrance and struggle fiercely in the hallway. One is most definitely a Tepig, whipping its tail fiercely at what appears to be a Snivy, its face contorted into an aggressive leer. He stares at the odd couple before letting his eyes wander into his sister's room, adorned in layers of red and magenta.

Her room, while usually slightly messy with books on the floor or the occasional shirt crawling out from beneath the bed, appears to have been slammed by a hurricane. The TV is tipping precariously on its stand, the bed has moved a good five feet from where it usually rests over the now misshapen rug, and a good smattering of tiny black footprints adorn her walls.

"Touko…how—?" "Not now, Touya!" she interrupts, the fierceness of her expression indicating that she's gone to that special place Touya dubs 'Competitive-I'll-beat-you-no-matter-what-la-la Land.' The urge to be the best has always been an unhealthy obsession for Touko; she would get into fights with people much older than her (a frightening number of them were physical, which she won, to Touya's amazement and _horror_); race between home and school; and had somehow managed to make playing house with Bianca competitive. (Needless to say, Bianca only played house with Touya for a long time after that; shamefully, he was not the husband.)

"Tackle him, Pepper!" she screams, making Bianca standing beside her cringe and try to call for the Snivy to dodge. The Snivy toddles back into the room, trying desperately to return to his trainer's side, only to have Touko's Tepig run it into the wall, leaving a dent in its wake as the Snivy slumps down in defeat.

"A-ah, come back!" Bianca squeals, recalling the Snivy back into its pokeball. She gives a little sniffle and pats the top of the ball. "I'm sorry, Ivy…I promise to get better…"

"Yes!" Touko pumps her fist. The Tepig, apparently named Pepper, gives a snort and mimics the gesture with a raised hoof. "We're amazing, just like I knew we would be!"

"Wooow…it's hard to believe that these little guys can pack such a punch!" Bianca bites her lip, glancing around the room. "Sorry, Touko. I didn't think it would get so messy."

"It's okay," Touko laughs, still riding high on euphoria and victory.

Cheren snorts, adjusting his glasses as he digs around in his pocket for some spare potions. "Honestly, Bianca. Even if they're still weak, you shouldn't be battling pokemon indoors."

"Yeah…," the absentminded reply makes it obvious that Bianca has long since tuned everyone else out. She looks happily at the pokeball in her hand, tracing the release button before pressing it. Ivy pops into her arms and clings to her blouse, giving Pepper the evil eye while the small pig snorts for another round.

"Touko," Touya finally breaks in, waving his arm to capture her attention. "What's…left?"

"Hm? I dunno," she shrugs. Cheren pauses in his actions of spritzing potion all over Pepper's body, coating the tiny scratches. He tries to say something, but shuts his mouth as Touya ventures over to the gift box Professor Juniper must have dropped off earlier.

The box is empty. Its lid lies off to the side, the green ribbon tied around it unraveled. He can make out three indents where three pokeballs must have once laid. He tips the lid up to see if maybe any stray pokeballs are hiding under it, but finds nothing but barren desk-top beneath. An indescribable feeling wells up in his gut, but he lets it slip out in a tiny sigh, almost inaudible if the room weren't deadly silent.

"There were only three," Cheren says. Touya nods and steels his lips. They are trying valiantly to show their quiver, but he tries to affect an air of stoic acceptance. He wants to scream.

He walks out of Touko's room, ignoring Bianca's small call of "Touya…" to instead search for his mother. He rages in his heart but tries to let it leak away, water down a drain. His father had once told him that getting angry never solved anything. But it's so hard. Everyone had waited a year for Touya to turn fourteen so they could all set out together. He had had to watch for months as his friends grew more and more anxious to leave Nuvema for the outer world, like it was a place that would disappear if they didn't get there _fast enough_.

"Mom?" he calls into the kitchen, where his mother is washing dishes. Normally she works in Accumula Town during the day, but she's taken today off especially for him.

"Oh, Touya! Good, you're up," she smiles, though it disappears quickly afterward. "I suppose Cheren woke you?"

Touko must get her competitive-streak from somewhere.

"Yeah," he mumbles. His tone gives his mother pause.

She bustles over to him, wiping her hands on a towel and placing a cool palm on his forehead. "Are you okay, dear? I don't feel a fever."

"Yeah…I…just," he sighs and flops into a chair at the dining room table. "Why…are there only three…why…"

Touya is not the most coherent of people. His speech is slow and measured, littered with unsure pauses that often have people yelling at him to hurry up. Normally this makes him fall silent, but his mother knows him well enough to understand.

She tsks, rubbing Touya's hair, "Touko got into the Professor's present, huh? They must have been too excited to wait for Mr. Birthday Boy."

He smiles at that, a bit watery. "Yeah. That's Touko."

She hugs him, almost lifting him out of his chair. Another trait she and Touko share: an insane amount of strength people of their frame and stature should not have. He clutches her and wonders what life without a mother will be like.

"It's okay, you know," she mumbles into his hair. "This isn't the end. The Professor only needed to give you guys three."

"What…do you mean?" Touya asks as she releases him and strides out of the kitchen. He waits for a few moments, straining his ears to hear his mother's paces as she moves through the living room and into her bedroom, and then back out again.

"Young man," she calls, carrying a box that she promptly sets before him. There's a slight layer of dust over the top, like it's been sitting in the closet for a while. "I have been waiting _years_ to give this to you."

Touya stares at it, almost hopeful. It's definitely the handiwork of his mother, with the wrapping paper crumpled in the corners and the bow bent and crooked.

"Come on, Touya! Open it, before I do it for you!"

He smiles at his mother's enthusiasm and tentatively pulls at the sloppy bow, and then tears away the yellow wrapping paper. He quickly lifts the lid and smiles wider at the pokeball within. Its exterior looks a bit dull, probably from not being washed in years, but he can't find a reason to care.

He hasn't been forgotten.

He cradles the device in his hand, feels its weight. He's only ever held empty pokeballs before. Somehow, knowing what waits inside makes it feel like lead in his palm. He can understand why the others were so eager to receive their partners. Only the tap of a button separates him from his future; this will be his partner for the adventures and trials ahead, to a world beyond small, nostalgic Nuvema.

He hesitates for only a second before releasing his partner.

.

.

.

_Awkward ending is awkward. DX But I really don't want chapters to exceed 4,000 words. Once the chapters become too tedious to write, I often lose interest in writing them._

_So, new story hooray! I'm terrible. But yes, I have finally started the game novelization. You will have already noticed that this….doesn't quite follow the game exactly. The fun thing with Pokemon is that you can interpret the characters any way you like, and give them any sort of backstory you like, too. I hope this chapter wasn't too boring; I just wanted to lay out some of the groundwork for character interpretation._

_You all must be thinking, "Wow, Touko's a bitch." Eh, I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but having an older sister myself, I may have let some of my bitterness in. Touko isn't a bad person; she's headstrong, knows what she wants, and gets it herself. It's good to remember that Touya, whose perspective we'll be following for most, if not all, of this story, is not unbiased. We only see things from his point of view, so it's best to take everything with a grain of salt._

_But honestly, my favorite characterizations this chapter: Cheren and mom. I don't know why but I love it. The mom is kinda like cool-mom-but-a-bit-fail-at-housekeeping. Cheren is entirely anal and bossy in my head. He loves sticking his nose in other people's business and telling them how it should be done._

_Touya is a woobie._

_Anyway, just so everything is clear: Touya is 14; Cheren, Bianca, and Touko are 15. The legal age to become a trainer is 14. (Because shit guys, 10 is way too young, and 16 and up is just way too old.) Therefore, everyone has waited a year for Touya to turn 14 so they can all set out together. Despite seeming like massive pricks in this chapter, it's actually very sweet of them._

_As for other questions: I will probably get to them at some point in the story. Really. Please trust me, guys. I hope. ;-;_

_This is hopefully the last time this A/N will be so long. Sorry! Anyway, please drop a review and tell me how I'm doing! It would be lovely to get some feedback, since it's been a while since I've written like this. Hope it wasn't too disappointing!_


	2. A Journey of a Thousand Miles

**Title**: Summer Brave

**Author**: The DayDreaming

**Warnings**: Something I forgot to mention in the first chapter is that this story is in the same universe as my other story, "Words that We Couldn't Say." If you wanna spoil yourself with Touya's end-party, then that's the place to look. ;)

**Summary**: -_game novelization_- They had drunk time in listless summer days; but now that the world unfolds before them, it is a bitter drop that poisons the soul. "Why does it always feel like I'm chasing someone beyond my reach?" / Isshushipping, NxTouya

.

.

arc _one_: **Summer**

**Chapter 2:** a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

.oXo.

.

"It's…it's an…oshawott," he mumbles.

It's a sullen-looking creature, exuding none of the pep and vibrancy of the other starters. It stares at him, then quickly glances to Mom, and at her nod, looks back at him with the most resigned face a sea otter can possibly have.

"It is, isn't it!" she coos, patting his head. "Just like my starter when I was your age!"

"Yeah…just like it…," he watches the oshawott, trying not to let his disappointment come through his voice as the otter scrambles into the box on the table.

"I thought you'd be more excited, Touya! This is a gift from your dad, you know!"

"W-what! Really?" he gasps. The oshawott pops out of the box and waves an envelope around. It's yellowed with age, and a bit crinkled around the edges, but the slur of his father's familiar handwriting catches his eye and he knows it's from him.

He catches the envelope as the oshawott tosses it to him and then busies itself shimmying out of the box. He flips the thick bundle over and sighs in disappointment at the sight of the words "Don't Open Until You've Left Home!"

"Oooh, how just like your father," your mother sighs, leaning over your shoulder. It's a fond sigh that she often gives when staring wistfully at the photos framed over the kitchen sink. "Always a romantic, with a place and time for everything. He wouldn't take me to the movies until nighttime and never lit candles until after eight, you know."

Touya does know, but pretends that this is all information he's never heard before, because his mother likes the reminiscing and he likes to hear it, again and again. The man his father had been when he was at home.

"Yeah…," he grips the envelope a little tighter and reaches to pet the oshawott. It almost rears back to bite him, but at the last moment hesitates, flicking its eyes over to his mother and holding still. The white fur of its head is a little stiff, and as he roves his hand over to scritch behind the small blue ears, almost velvet-like in their consistency, it leans into his touch.

His mother glances at the clock on the wall and gasps. "The time! It's almost ten! I told the Professor you'd be at her lab by now! C'mon, let's go—" she pulls his arm. "Call him back, and then go get your sister and friends. Quickly, go!"

He stumbles at the force and scrambles for the old pokeball, pressing the button and releasing a spray of light. The first attempt misses the frowning oshawott by a mile, but when he tries again, the beam hits cleanly.

I just recalled my first pokemon, Touya thinks faintly in his mind as he rushes up the stairs. It's almost too surreal to believe. Something he had watched others do constantly on TV and read about in books, and he had just done it, too!

He resists the urge to pump his fist in the air.

.

.

.

Professor Juniper gives her usual speech, with the same exact words and phrasing that she uses every year. Generally, the kids she graduates have traveled from all over Unova to meet her and obtain their starter pokemon, so the formal introduction makes sense, but the fact that she's reintroducing herself to children she's known since their births is a bit ridiculous.

Touya remembers watching how those new trainers would act, all serious and stunned, their eyes wandering in awe. He hadn't understood then, why the world seemed so new and wondrous to those boys and girls standing so shyly at the sides of their partners.

He still doesn't, not really. But something a bit like eagerness and excitement bubbles in his chest as the Professor examines their companions closely, making last minute checks and explaining some of the finer details in raising them.

His oshawott stands apart from the others, eyes wandering lazily over the lab instruments. From what he can gather, the pokemon is a loner by nature, but as he catches it glancing over to the other starters huddled closely together and chattering between themselves, it almost seems like it wants to join in, but can't bring itself to. As if sensing his gaze, its attention latches onto him. He gives a little waggle of his fingers and the otter looks put out, but waves back.

"Woooow, you kids! It looks like these guys have already seen a battle!" Professor Juniper whistles, writing something admiringly on her clipboard. "Not bad for a first day, huh? Your oshawott looks particularly robust, Touya. I remember when this little guy came in for registration years ago!"

If the little otter knows her, it doesn't show it, and rolls out of the way of her probing fingers when she tries to grip the scalchop secured to its chest. She laughs, writing something else on the board. "Still a bit anxious about touch. Understandable, since this one came from the wild; he only ever liked your dad."

"He? My dad?" Touya asks. He hadn't realized how perfectly fine he was with calling the thing an 'it.' Bianca is the best out of the lot of them at determining genders, while he and Touko bottom out at the worst.

"Yup. It's hard to tell when they're young, though. But I remember from when your father brought him in. By the way, have you maybe considered giving him a nickname?" Professor Juniper turns to him, pen hovering over her thoroughly inked papers like a sentinel.

"Ah, not…really," Touya mumbles, eyeing the oshawott, trying to place key characteristics into a name. But that feels incredibly stupid and unoriginal. Who names their pokemon 'Oshi' or 'Wo-wo?' Or 'Rain' and 'Storm?'

Professor Juniper smiles at the panicked look slowly creeping across his face. "It's okay, Touya. You don't have to do it right now. It might actually be better to consult with your pokemon carefully before making such decisions. It's a partnership, after all."

"O-oh…right. Okay," he blushes and attempts to pull his cap down further.

"Alright. If you come up with a name, phone me and I'll record it. Now, to get onto the real business," Juniper smiles and places her clipboard aside. She gestures for the four to stand in a line. "Do you kids know why you're here today?"

"It's so that we can officially become registered pokemon trainers. A qualified Pokemon League official is the only person allowed to assign trainers their starters, as well as hand out trainer cards," Cheren says matter-of-factly, adjusting his glasses as though it's no big deal to have memorized the entire League rulebook.

"Good, Cheren! But that's not the only thing," the Professor turns to the desk behind her, pulling out a box. From within the confines of the cardboard she pulls out a small rectangular device, the pokeball emblem emblazoned on the cover. "Do you guys know what this is?"

Cheren sucks in air through his teeth, twitching his fingers as the professor begins handing the devices out. "A Pokedex…you mean, Professor…?"

"That's right!" Juniper winks playfully at them, handing the last Pokedex to Bianca. "I'm entrusting you all with a very important task! You don't have to accept, but it would do me the greatest favor if you four could go out and explore the world, collecting as much information as possible.

"It's been many years since I've given anyone one of these guys. But I trust you all to take care of it and fill in the pages to the best of your ability. You're all promising trainers, and even though it may be hard, I believe that you will succeed in your individual journeys. So how about it?"

They remain silent for a moment, looking among themselves searchingly. Many trainers get by on training only a few pokemon, but maintaining a Pokedex requires a more vigorous regimen. Touko smirks, gripping the device fiercely.

"Of course we'll accept! We've been waiting our entire lives for this!" she proclaims, pulling the arms of Cheren and Touya on either side of her together. "We're so ready!"

The Professor chuckles and gathers them all into her arms. "I'm gonna miss you guys. Nuvema is going to be a lot less exciting without you here."

"Aw, don't feel sad, Professor! We'll stay in touch!" Bianca coos. It's just like her to be setting herself free from the anchor of Nuvema, only to make sure to tie herself down with strings of promises. Already she's told Touya's mother the same exact thing, and no doubt her own mother as well. Maybe she's promised to bring something back for the little girl down the street, always carrying around her teddiursa doll.

Professor Juniper holds them a little longer, squeezing tightly and then sighing when she lets go. "I feel old. Just look what you kids have done to me," she gestures to the slight crow's-feet around her eyes. "I guess it hasn't been so bad, but alas, now I feel like I don't need kids with the way I take care of you guys.

"Alright, well," she walks past and opens the doors leading out of the lab. "Meet me at the tall grass on Route 1. I'll demonstrate the proper way to capture a pokemon. Don't be too long, but don't be in a hurry, either. Make sure you finish your goodbyes!" She smiles and exits, letting the metal doors clang behind her.

.

.

.

As it turns out, Touya and Touko's goodbyes to their mother take a bit longer than expected. The moment they arrive through the door, their individual starters clinging to their hair or hoods, she takes out a birthday cake. It obviously isn't store bought with the way the icing smears across the layers unevenly, and how the large, shaky blue lettering on top, _Happy 14th and good luck on your journeys!_, runs into the edge of the confection with progressively tinier letters to make everything fit.

It tastes overly sweet, like much of his mother's baking does, but he doesn't mind. He loves sweet things while his sister, unfortunately, can barely stand anything with more than a teaspoon of sugar. (He's seen his mother bake before, and he's pretty sure dumping half the bag into the bowl isn't a defined measurement.) They finish the cake and hug their mother after she gives them new Xtransceivers, telling them to call at least once a week, _at least_.

Touko has her pink bag slung across her shoulder in record time. She's out the door before Touya is even up the stairs, calling that she's going over to Bianca's, and that she'll see him at the beginning of Route 1. He sighs and sets about cleaning his room a bit, wondering idly if Touko has told Mom about the destruction of her room. The oshawott is walking about the room in quiet wonder, leaping into the clothes hamper or shuffling under the bed.

It takes several calls before the oshawott trots over to him again. He goes to lift him up, but the otter hops out of reach, shaking its head. If being difficult is his partner's main objective, he's succeeding, in Touya's opinion. Maybe he'd mind if people tried manhandling him and carrying him around, but he highly doubts that his partner will fare well on the stairs. But he doesn't want to put the other back into his pokeball either. It's weird to think about, but he's pretty sure the oshawott had been suspended in that pokeball for years now. His dad had left over five years ago, and from what he can tell, this oshawott was obtained (or however it came about that his father got him), even before that.

It makes him slightly sick to think about how long his partner must have been waiting in that dark, dusty box. Are pokemon conscious while inside the pokeball? Can they see what's happening around them, or are they just in some sort of suspended animation until they're released?

What happens if a pokeball breaks?

On that morbid train of thought, Touya watches as the oshawott fumbles his way down the stairs, rolling more than anything. He hugs his mother one last time before heading out the door (_"Call me or so help me, I will __**find**__ you!")_ and walks slowly so that the oshawott can patter quietly beside him.

Nuvema isn't a large town, and it just so happens that his house is only a ten minute walk to the entrance of Route 1. When he arrives, Cheren is tapping his foot impatiently and staring at the Xtransceiver on his bony wrist. Touko and Bianca are off to the side. From what Touya can see, Bianca is hunched over and trying to hide her eyes under her green beret while Touko rubs her back and tries to peek beneath the other's hidden face.

He coughs to catch their attention, and steps back involuntarily when Touko whips around to shove Bianca behind her.

"Finally!" she shouts, a bit too nervously to really fool him. "We've been waiting forever!"

"Sorry…," he mutters. "By the way…Mom…says…you have maps?"

Touko's face goes blank for a second before brightening. "Oh yeah! I totally was gonna give them…soon. Ish. Yes." She digs around in her bag for a bit, shoving things aside. Behind her, he can see Cheren twitching at the disorganization. "Here we go!"

She hands one to Touya, then tosses another Town Map behind her. Cheren catches it, though his glare darkens further. The last map she quietly hands to Bianca, who takes it and nods her head quietly when Touko whispers something in her ear. She rubs her face roughly with an arm before turning to face Touya with a smile. He ignores the red rims of her eyes.

"Are we ready now?" Cheren scoffs, checking his watch once more. "I'd like to try and be in Accumula by tonight."

"Yeah, yeah…sourpuss," Touko grumbles. They line up right before the official start of Route 1, toeing the line between old paved road and dusty dirt tracks. Touya's oshawott watches curiously as they link arms, forming a human chain. He sidles up beside Touya, grasping his pant leg and lifting his foot to mimic his trainer.

"Oh, that's so cute!" Bianca squeals before unhooking her arms from Cheren's and Touko's to release her Ivy. It shakes its head in confusion as it glances around. "If we're going to take the first step of our journey together, it should be with our pokemon, too!"

Touko gives a small 'oh!' before also releasing Pepper, and Cheren follows her example with a long-suffering sigh.

"Is this necessary?" he almost-whines (because Cheren never whines; he complains in a completely manly and powerful way). Touko stomping on his foot is the only answer he receives.

With all of their pokemon out and poised to take their first step, Bianca gives the call, "One, two—" and on the third count they all step forward. It's not as coordinated as they thought it would be, with Touko leaping forward and Bianca's foot getting caught in her skirt, causing the entire chain to be dragged to the ground, but it's something.

His oshawott gives him an unimpressed stare at ground-level while Touya stands to brush himself off. "It's…always like this," he mutters. The oshawott pats his head to knock out a stray pebble.

The four teens collect themselves and begin moving again, their partners running off in front of them. Touya's oshawott keeps an even pace with his trainer, looking around vigilantly (though for what, Touya isn't sure). Cheren's own oshawott, a naïve girl with an odd white spot on her right ear, named Lily, trails after his oshawott in an awed stupor, tentatively trying to catch his attention with feeble coos and an insistent tapping on his arm.

It's cute until Touya's oshawott begins to grow annoyed, barking at the other, though she doesn't take the hint. When she just grabs onto his arm entirely, he shoves her to the ground and scrambles up Touya's leg and side until he's fully perched on the other's shoulder.

"He's delightful," Cheren sneers, picking up Lily by her scruff.

"Sorry…," Touya murmurs. Oshawott doesn't even have the decency to look cowed.

The afternoon sun warms their backs as they wander along the old dirt path, sweat gathering on their brows. Touya almost wishes he could strip his shirt and jump into the nearby river, but contents himself with petting the cool fur of the otter pokemon on his shoulder. The first few strokes cause the little otter to tense, but as he grows used to Touya's fingers weaving their clumsy way through his fur, he lapses into a bout of languid ease.

The minutes while away and he recalls his dreams, but every time he looks over his shoulder, Nuvema is still there, small and quaint and ordinary and boring. It's almost surreal how very boring everything is, suddenly. Perhaps he was under the impression that the moment he set out on his journey, there would be no room to breathe in-between bouts of battling and exploring and training.

So far, it's just a lot of walking.

Professor Juniper comes into sight about an hour into the trek, basking in the sun on a fold-out chair. Where she got the chair from is a mystery, because she certainly didn't set out from the lab with one. She waves to them and stands, stretching her back.

"I said take a bit of time, not a decade," she sighs, but smiles afterwards. "Ah well. I've been meaning to work on my tan. I spend too many hours cooped up in the lab as it is!"

Touya has heard his mother sometimes talk about how Professor Aurea Juniper was a Backpacker; just a girl and her father running around and living off the land. Sometimes he can see it in the way she stands, gung ho and ready; in the way she walks, like she's not quite used to standing without something heavy to weigh her back down; and in the way she maps the land with her eyes, always seeming to know the best places to find pokemon.

"Let's begin Pokemon Catching 101, then," she smiles. She pulls a retracted pokeball from her pocket and begins to tread through the tall grass on the side of the road. The group follows her. The normal hesitation has vanished now that wild pokemon lurking in the foliage can be fought off with their own starters.

Catching pokemon is an easy affair. The Professor's minccino makes quick work of an aggressive patrat that had jumped out of a patch of dark weeds. With a flick of her wrist, she casts the ball and hits her mark, and watches calmly as the ball shakes, then settles, into the dirt.

"It's as easy as riding a bike, except without the falling," she explains.

"Yeah! And if you fail, you only have a rage-blinded creature going at your throat!" Touko adds chirpily, scanning the grass for anymore stray pokemon.

Now that Juniper is finished with her demonstration, the group has been challenged to capture a pokemon before the Professor heads back to Nuvema. While Touko caught a lillipup swiftly and precisely, Bianca's Ivy keeps fainting, Cheren's angry kicking at the grass is scaring away any potential attackers, and Touya's oshawott defeats the pokemon and makes them run before he has a chance to try and capture them.

"Can you…try to…tone it down? Even…a little?" he asks the otter. Oshawott merely pats him on the end before trotting off.

"It's nice that he likes you so much," Juniper says conversationally, coming up behind him.

"Yeah…but," Touya fiddles with his cap. "Um…he doesn't listen to me. At all. He…kinda…"

He gestures hopelessly at his starter, whom has taken to shooting a barrage of Water Guns at a chittering patrat. The assault does not cease until the poor creature is scampering away. Oshawott releases a pleased snort.

The Professor regards him and his partner with a considering gaze, shifting between Touya's nervous fidgeting and the oshawott's charged demeanor. She shrugs, "Guess you'll just have to learn, my little greenhorn trainer."

A rustling patch of grass catches Touya's eye, the pink shape within giving away the audino about to emerge. Juniper grips his shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze and a cheerful "Go get 'em!" before wandering off.

Audino's are incredibly cute, in Touya's opinion. They're pink and squishy, and generally don't cause trouble. One time, as a child, when he had scraped his knee falling down a tree, one had come up to him and relinquished its oran berry. It had even allowed him to hug it for comfort until his tears dried up and he could bear to walk home. That being said, the creatures are about as nonviolent as pokemon can get, aside from those trapped in a chrysalis state.

That of course means his oshawott sees the approaching audino as a threat and immediately goes into action, tackling the unsuspecting pokemon and spitting a Water Gun into its face at pointblank range.

"Oh…no! Stop! Uh, please," Touya scrambles over and attempts to pry the manic otter away. The audino is giving out a heart-wrenching series of shrieks. The moment he manages to pull his oshawott away, it begins to fumble blindly until it reaches Touya's chest, arms full and struggling against his starter. Without preamble, it starts pounding Touya's face with strength belying its squishy pink frame. He drops his oshawott as quickly as he can to curl in on himself and shield his front.

At one particularly hard hit, he lets out a little scream, prompting his dazed oshawott to action. He remorselessly tackles the audino, hopping back once he's landed to charge away and tackle again. The wild audino is knocked to the ground, growling in response to the pain, though the oshawott ignores this and shoots another Water Gun.

Touya uncurls from his fetal position in time to see the audino get knocked out, his oshawott kicking its limp body before trotting over to his side. The oshawott gestures to the prone pokemon, almost as though he's presenting it to Touya as some sort of prize. He waits patiently until Touya mumbles a faint 'thank you,' then clambers up the other's clothes to reach his shoulder to pat the red marks littering his trainer's face from the audino's Pound attack.

"Should we be concerned?" Cheren asks, eyeing the pair from a distance.

"About what?" Bianca asks in return.

"Well…it just seems like Touya's partner could be a mass murderer, is all."

"Oh. Hm. Maybe he's just hungry?"

_For the taste of flesh_, Cheren replies mentally, but goes back to stomping in the grass without another word.

Meanwhile, Touya fervently prays for some sort of a miracle. The oshawott has jumped down from his shoulder and begun kicking the audino's head. He thinks he's been partnered to a mass murderer.

.

.

.

**1) Juniper as a Backpacker:** read it on Bulbapedia, too awesome to not be true.

**2) Audino:** I never stayed on Route 1 long enough to get any shaking grass, but when I looked it up, I couldn't believe I could get Audino. Stupid, because they pop up everywhere there's grass.

**3) Oshawott:** Touya's oshawott is troubling me. I decided that everyone would get nicknames, because it's annoying to have to keep calling them by their real names. But I could just capitalize their names and not have to define them by the person possessing them. Except no. My story. Whatever. But the oshawott doesn't get a name for now, so I have to keep calling him 'the oshawott.' This will change. At some point. Yeah. I hate myself, because it is so very annoying to write.

.

So, we inch along on our journey towards Accumula. I swear, for this story, it's not the Pokemon League I'm shooting for, it's getting to the next friggin' town!

Some things were out of order in this chapter. Why? This is not a carbon copy of the games. Hell, you may even notice that some things happen without Touya being there, because Touko is in existence. Like the scene at Bianca's house, or getting the town maps. Will it always be this slow-paced? I certainly hope not. Unfortunately, I just can't get a feel for this story and its tone. I am really regretting choosing present-tense. You guys may just find that I've revamped the story into past-tense the next time I update.

Eh, actually, I'll give a vote. **Who wants this story in past-tense?**

That being said, it looks like Touya's oshawott is more of a handful then we thought it would be! Sorry to disappoint anyone. I have really forgotten to mention: **THIS STORY IS SET IN THE SAME UNIVERSE AS "WORDS THAT WE COULDN'T SAY." **You can actually get the spoilers for Touya's final line-up by reading that story. That's not to say that Touya will immediately start out with those guys. Because uh. Bad things happen to early pokemon. ;-; That's all I'm going to say regarding the matter.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I know this story isn't much. It's really boring and stuff, but it's the way I write. How thrilling were the beginnings of the games? Pretend this is an exercise in putting yourselves in the character's shoes. Nuvema is as boring as this story, no doubt.

_(Regarding the party pokemon, oh geez I feel saaaaad. I'm getting towards the end of Pokemon Black, and my new party is guh lovely. I still love my party from White, but now my interests are split! Geeeeez! Why'd I have to go and decide the pokemon already?)_

Thanks for reading, and have a Happy Valentine's Day! And please review to show me how much you love me and my terrible writing, kaaaay? I won't be able to update until at least March, since my schoolwork has built up, but I hope people enjoy the three offerings of fic I made today! I feel dead, so NEVER AGAIN!


End file.
